Tuesday last chance to register for primary

Sunday

Jan 1, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Marylin Pike

The Presidential Primary will be held on Tuesday, January 10. Voting will take place at the Emma Ramsey Center , polls open at 8 am and will close at 7 pm. Absentee ballots are available at the town clerk's office if you are unable to appear in person on election day. The town clerk's office is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:30 until 3:30, Thursday 8:30 until 6:30, and Friday 8:30 until 11 am.The town clerk may be reached 652-4501.

The supervisors of the checklist will hold a session on Tuesday, January 3 at the Emma Ramsey Center from 7 until 7:30 pm. This will be the last chance to register for the presidential primary. No party changes can be made after this supervisors session.

BUDGET COMMITTEE

Present were the at-large budget committee members Jennifer Crone, Bob Carrier, Bob Naeger, Larry Brown and Lisa Stewart. Also present, Ann Walsh representing the school district and Tom Gray representing the board of selectmen and DPW Pat Smith and the town's administrator, Tony Mincu. Steve Elliott, representative of the water department was absent.

On the agenda was the town's proposed 2012 budget. Discussion ensued regarding the budget line of government buildings. PWD Smith explained that he is moving away from contracting for uniforms and is instead providing a clothing allowance to department employees. He noted that the clothing allowance will provide for the purchase of jackets and shirts with town's logo and a separate amount for pants to be made on an annual or as-needed basis, He noted that the current cost of uniforms exceeds $12,000 and that is too much adding that the major reason for the increase in cost of uniforms is due to employee turnover.

Smith's DPD proposed budget includes a 2 percent increase in salaries. There was some discussion regarding a proposed step plan for town employees and it was reported that a special warrant article would be on the 2012 warrant in the amount of $35,000 for the first year.

Smith stated that his department is responsible for maintenance of town buildings to include mowing grass, maintaining both ball fields, the town's beach, town cemeteries (which includes annual weeding and trash removal), the tree lighting and other duties assigned. He also noted that two properties were added to the DPW this year, the pumping station on Charles Street and the sewer treatment plant of Route 125. Another assignment is shoveling snow from roofs and walkways.

Smith stated that his employees cleaned the carpets and stripped the floors at the Emma Ramsey building. There was some discussion regarding the public works department being short-handed. One of the six positions at a pay rate of $12.78 per hour has been vacant since April. It was reported that overtime costs per storm, 4 to 5 inches of snowfall, costs the department about $7,800.

Stewart noted that, as of December 8, there is an unspent balance of $119,484 in the public works department. She stated that she is very concerned about the idea of presenting a budget to the voters with a significant built-in surplus. Smith stated that not everything in the budget will be spent. He explained that between January and March over 25 percent of his budget will be spent and historically this number has been higher. He went on to say that when more than 25 percent of his budget is spent in the first quarter of the year, he holds off on expenditures in subsequent quarters to bring the budget back in line.

Specifically, Smith noted that through April there are certain lines that will be over-spent such as salt, sand, overtime and fuel due to weather conditions. He noted the wide variability from year to year in his expenditures due to unexpected events. Gray stated that there is not a built-in surplus. He explained that there was a fear over the retirement increases and other unknowns and that the selectmen had frozen the budget in April and that is still in place.